Background
Straub recalls that the book had its origins in fairy tales he told his son: "Nightly, stories poured out of me, as from an inexhaustible source. I had no idea where they were going when I started them, but along the way they always turned into real stories, with beginnings, middles, and ends, complete with hesitations, digressions, puzzles, and climaxes. This was thrilling. My little boy was entranced, and I felt as though I had tapped into the pure, ancient well, the source of narrative, the spring water that nourished me and everyone like me... Traditional fairy tales, which I began to investigate soon after I started making up my own, pervade this novel. The beautiful story called 'The King of the Cats' is the novel in miniature." Another influence was John Fowles's The Magus , "which suggested a way to unite the powerful strangeness resulting from the oral tradition with more conventional narrative satisfactions." [1]
The first part of the novel takes place at Carson, an Arizona prep school which is a thinly disguised version of Milwaukee Country Day School, which Straub attended. The main action takes place at the eponymous Shadowland, in Vermont. [2]
Plot summary
The story is told from a first person perspective of the narrator recounting a tale from an old friend of his, Tom Flanagan, whom he runs into years after the events of the story, in a nightclub.
Years ago, Tom and another boy named Del Nightingale attend the prestigious all boys private school Carson. The freshmen run afoul of senior Steve “Skeleton” Ridpath, an antisocial psychopath. Steve and Tom both have vivid nightmares of a strange figure watching them and of a vulture hovering over them, which seem to oddly connect to Del’s childhood. Del expresses his love of magic to Tom, getting him hooked on as well, showing an expertise in the craft.
At an away football game, Skeleton steals an expensive artifact from the other school, leading to the Carson students to be subjected to extensive and intense interrogation by the principal. It’s revealed that Skeleton kept the item, alongside several papers, inside the piano bench, explaining his anger towards anyone who got near it. Del discovers the artifact and destroys it, but doesn’t reveal Skeleton stole it to the staff, and the situation is mostly forgotten.
Del and Tom perform a magic show for the school. At the end of their act, the auditorium catches fire, killing one student. The freshmen wonder where Skeleton was during the fire, and grieve the death of the student, fellow freshmen Dave Brick. In the summer, Tom discovers his father has died from cancer, and is invited to stay with Del at his uncles estate, Shadowland, for the summer. Feeling a need to protect Del, Tom agrees to go. On the train ride to Vermont, Del explains that his uncle was a renowned magician who taught Del real magic and wants to teach Tom as well. Del also reveals that he controlled Skeleton to steal the artifact, hoping it would suspend Skeleton but the plan evidently did not work. Tom stumbles on a train compartment that did not exist before, and runs into Skeleton who disappears shortly thereafter. The train is delayed by a crash, but Tom and Del make it safely, albeit hours late.
Arriving in Vermont, Tom meets Del’s uncle, Coleman Collins, an evident alcoholic. Collins introduces Tom to Shadowland, and prepares them for the summer. As Collins performs trickery on the boys, warping their sense of time and space, he recounts his past as a World War I soldier and nurse and how he acquired his magical persona. Tom seems to run into Collins randomly around Shadowland, who disturbs Tom with cryptic messages about Tom’s future as the “King of the Cats.” Del becomes jealous of Tom as Del is isolated from everyone, but the two reconcile as Tom schemes to make Del the future ruler of Shadowland, not wanting the position to be handed to him.
Also in Shadowland are the Wandering Boys, a group of burly men who acted as Collins’ bodyguards during the War, and Rose Armstrong, a mysterious fifteen year old who stays on the lake. Rose confides to Tom that Collins is manipulating the boys against each other and she wishes to escape to rescue the two of them. The two begin to fall in love with each other, meeting up at night to discuss ways to escape and express their love. Over time Tom is able to convince Del that Collins is psychopathic.
Collins finishes the tale of his past to Tom and Del. As a medic, Collins was forced to mercy kill a fellow soldier who was grievously injured. Believing he had become the man he m murdered, Collins suffered from multiple personality disorder, and ran away from the war to perform in magic shows around Europe. While traveling he was invited by Speckle John, another magician, to join his group, and began dating Rosa Forte, and hired the Wandering Boys, becoming a massively successful group. Collins also mastered an entity known as the Collector, a receptacle that Collins used to murder any competitors after possessing them. After catching Speckle John making love to Rosa Forte, Collins left the group after taking away Speckle John’s powers. Tom realizes Collins is grooming him to become Collins successor.
Rose guides Tom and Del to an underground tunnel system that leads them out of Shadowland. While walking, they are spotted and chased by the Wandering Boys. Rose tricks the boys by taking them back to Collins manor. Collins decides to start his final performance early, crucifying Tom in the main stage and letting the Wandering Boys mercilessly beat Del. Tom awakens and meets the spirit of Speckle John, who was reincarnated as Del’s butler, who mentally pushes Tom to escape. Tom shoots and kills some of the Wandering Boys, and rescues Del from the rest of them. They are joined by Rose, a reincarnation of Rosa Forte, who admits that Collins manipulated her as well as she believed leading them back would save them. The three prepare to face off against Collins.
The Collector, possessing Skeleton, arrives and pursues the trio. Del is kidnapped by Collins, Rose runs away and hides and Tom is momentarily killed by the Collector. Tom is able to rip Skeleton from the Collector and lets him walk away alive. Tom and Rose barge into Collins room. He expresses disappointment in Tom, deeming him a failure, and turns Del into a bird before disappearing. Tom follows Collins around the manor before he kills Del by turning him into stone. The two fight, with Tom trapping Collins inside the Collector and sending him away. Tom burns the house down and leaves with Rose, where they sleep on the lakeshore before she disappears in the morning, inferring that Rose is a mermaid. Tom sets the statue of Del on the lake before leaving Shadowland.
In the present, after interviewing others that Tom Flanagan knew, the narrator meets an older Skeleton at a monastery who seems to have no recollection of the events of the story. The narrator visits the town where Shadowland resides in and visits to find nothing, but stumbles on a brick, realizing that the estate has fully burned down, confirming Tom’s story.
